Method and system for best-m cqi feedback together with pmi feedback

ABSTRACT

Aspects of a method and system for best-M CQI feedback together with PMI feedback may include generating a plurality of feedback messages, which may be communicated from a mobile station to a base station, wherein at least one of the generated plurality of feedback messages may be associated with each corresponding selected one of a plurality of Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) reporting units. The at least one of the generated feedback messages may comprise CQI information and Pre-coding Matrix Index (PMI) information, which may both be associated with the selected one of the plurality of CQI reporting units. At least one other of the generated plurality of feedback messages may comprise an aggregate CQI information, which is based on one or more of the plurality of CQI reporting units.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS/INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

This application makes reference to, claims priority to, and claims thebenefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/915,102, filed onApr. 30, 2007.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Certain embodiments of the invention relate to signal processing forcommunication systems. More specifically, certain embodiments of theinvention relate to a method and system for best-M CQI feedback togetherwith PMI feedback.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Mobile communications have changed the way people communicate and mobilephones have been transformed from a luxury item to an essential part ofevery day life. The use of mobile phones is today dictated by socialsituations, rather than hampered by location or technology. While voiceconnections fulfill the basic need to communicate, and mobile voiceconnections continue to filter even further into the fabric of every daylife, the mobile Internet is the next step in the mobile communicationrevolution. The mobile Internet is poised to become a common source ofeveryday information, and easy, versatile mobile access to this datawill be taken for granted.

Third generation (3G) cellular networks have been specifically designedto fulfill these future demands of the mobile Internet. As theseservices grow in popularity and usage, factors such as cost efficientoptimization of network capacity and quality of service (QoS) willbecome even more essential to cellular operators than it is today. Thesefactors may be achieved with careful network planning and operation,improvements in transmission methods, and advances in receivertechniques. To this end, carriers need technologies that will allow themto increase downlink throughput and, in turn, offer advanced QoScapabilities and speeds that rival those delivered by cable modem and/orDSL service providers.

In order to meet these demands, communication systems using multipleantennas at both the transmitter and the receiver have recently receivedincreased attention due to their promise of providing significantcapacity increase in a wireless fading environment. These multi-antennaconfigurations, also known as smart antenna techniques, may be utilizedto mitigate the negative effects of multipath and/or signal interferenceon signal reception. It is anticipated that smart antenna techniques maybe increasingly utilized both in connection with the deployment of basestation infrastructure and mobile subscriber units in cellular systemsto address the increasing capacity demands being placed on thosesystems. These demands arise, in part, from a shift underway fromcurrent voice-based services to next-generation wireless multimediaservices that provide voice, video, and data communication.

The utilization of multiple transmit and/or receive antennas is designedto introduce a diversity gain and to raise the degrees of freedom tosuppress interference generated within the signal reception process.Diversity gains improve system performance by increasing receivedsignal-to-noise ratio and stabilizing the transmission link. On theother hand, more degrees of freedom allow multiple simultaneoustransmissions by providing more robustness against signal interference,and/or by permitting greater frequency reuse for higher capacity. Incommunication systems that incorporate multi-antenna receivers, a set ofM receive antennas may be utilized to null the effect of (M-1)interferers, for example. Accordingly, N signals may be simultaneouslytransmitted in the same bandwidth using N transmit antennas, with thetransmitted signal then being separated into N respective signals by wayof a set of N antennas deployed at the receiver. Systems that utilizemultiple transmit and receive antennas may be referred to asmultiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. One attractive aspect ofmulti-antenna systems, in particular MIMO systems, is the significantincrease in system capacity that may be achieved by utilizing thesetransmission configurations. For a fixed overall transmitted power andbandwidth, the capacity offered by a MIMO configuration may scale withthe increased signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). For example, in the case offading multipath channels, a MIMO configuration may increase systemcapacity by nearly M additional bits/cycle for each 3-dB increase inSNR.

The widespread deployment of multi-antenna systems in wirelesscommunications has been limited by the increased cost that results fromincreased size, complexity, and power consumption. As a result, somework on multiple antenna systems may be focused on systems that supportsingle user point-to-point links, other work may focus on multiuserscenarios. Communication systems that employ multiple antennas maygreatly improve the system capacity. To obtain significant performancegains using MIMO technology, it may however be desirable to supplyinformation on the channel to the transmitter. Such channel data iscalled channel state information (CSI). In many wireless systems, theuplink and the downlink operate in frequency division duplex (FDD) mode,that is, the uplink and the downlink use different frequencies. Whenthis is the case, channel measurements of the uplink may not beapplicable to the downlink and vice versa. In these instances, thechannel may be measured only by a signal receiver and channel stateinformation may be fed back to the transmitter.

Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditionalapproaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, throughcomparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention asset forth in the remainder of the present application with reference tothe drawings.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method and/or system for best-M CQI feedback together with PMIfeedback, substantially as shown in and/or described in connection withat least one of the figures, as set forth more completely in the claims.

These and other advantages, aspects and novel features of the presentinvention, as well as details of an illustrated embodiment thereof, willbe more fully understood from the following description and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating exemplary cellular multipathcommunication between a base station and a mobile computing terminal, inconnection with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 1B is a diagram illustrating an exemplary MIMO communicationsystem, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary MIMO transceiverchain model, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary MIMO with finite rate channelstate information feedback, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 4 is a time-frequency diagram illustrating a time-frequencywireless channel, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary best-M CQI/PMI feedbackprocess with aggregate CQI, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary utilization of thePMI/CQI feedback at a MIMO transmitter as a function of scheduling, inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and systemfor adaptive best-M CQI feedback together with PMI feedback. Aspects ofthe method and system for best-M CQI feedback together with PMI feedbackmay comprise generating a plurality of feedback messages, which may becommunicated from a mobile station to a base station, wherein at leastone of the generated plurality of feedback messages may be associatedwith each corresponding selected one of a plurality of Channel QualityIndicator (CQI) reporting units. The at least one of the generatedfeedback messages may comprise CQI information and Pre-coding MatrixIndex (PMI) information, which may both be associated with the selectedone of the plurality of CQI reporting units. At least one other of thegenerated plurality of feedback messages may comprise an aggregate CQIinformation, the aggregate CQI information based on one or more of theplurality of CQI reporting units.

The aggregate CQI information may be generated based on an arithmeticmean of CQI information associated with the plurality of CQI reportingunits, or on an arbitrary function of channel state information. It maybe determined whether a scheduled transmission corresponds to atime-frequency interval of selected one or more CQI reporting units, anda modulation type and/or a coding type, and a pre-coding matrix, may beselected for the scheduled transmission based on the determining and onCQI information and/or PMI information associated with a plurality ofCQI reporting units. The modulation type, and/or coding type, and thepre-coding matrix may be selected for the scheduled transmission basedon CQI information and/or PMI information associated with the selectedCQI reporting unit when the scheduled transmission corresponds to thetime-frequency interval of the selected one or more CQI reporting unit.When the scheduled transmission does not correspond to thetime-frequency interval of the selected one or more CQI reporting unit,the modulation type and the coding type may be selected based on anaggregate CQI information.

FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating exemplary cellular multipathcommunication between a base station and a mobile computing terminal, inconnection with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 1A,there is shown a house 120, a mobile terminal 122, a factory 124, a basestation 126, a car 128, and communication paths 130, 132 and 134.

The base station 126 and the mobile terminal 122 may comprise suitablelogic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to generate and processMIMO communication signals.

Wireless communications between the base station 126 and the mobileterminal 122 may take place over a wireless channel. The wirelesschannel may comprise a plurality of communication paths, for example,the communication paths 130, 132 and 134. The wireless channel maychange dynamically as the mobile terminal 122 and/or the car 128 moves.In some cases, the mobile terminal 122 may be in line-of-sight (LOS) ofthe base station 126. In other instances, there may not be a directline-of-sight between the mobile terminal 122 and the base station 126and the radio signals may travel as reflected communication pathsbetween the communicating entities, as illustrated by the exemplarycommunication paths 130, 132 and 134. The radio signals may be reflectedby man-made structures like the house 120, the factory 124 or the car128, or by natural obstacles like hills. Such a system may be referredto as a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) communications system.

A communication system may comprise both LOS and NLOS signal components.If a LOS signal component is present, it may be much stronger than NLOSsignal components. In some communication systems, the NLOS signalcomponents may create interference and reduce the receiver performance.This may be referred to as multipath interference. The communicationpaths 130, 132 and 134, for example, may arrive with different delays atthe mobile terminal 122. The communication paths 130, 132 and 134 mayalso be differently attenuated. In the downlink, for example, thereceived signal at the mobile terminal 122 may be the sum of differentlyattenuated communication paths 130, 132 and/or 134 that may not besynchronized and that may dynamically change. Such a channel may bereferred to as a fading multipath channel. A fading multipath channelmay introduce interference but it may also introduce diversity anddegrees of freedom into the wireless channel. Communication systems withmultiple antennas at the base station and/or at the mobile terminal, forexample MIMO systems, may be particularly suited to exploit thecharacteristics of wireless channels and may extract large performancegains from a fading multipath channel that may result in significantlyincreased performance with respect to a communication system with asingle antenna at the base station 126 and at the mobile terminal 122,in particular for NLOS communication systems.

FIG. 1B is a diagram illustrating an exemplary MIMO communicationsystem, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring toFIG. 1B, there is shown a MIMO transmitter 102 and a MIMO receiver 104,and antennas 106, 108, 110, 112, 114 and 116. There is also shown awireless channel comprising communication paths h₁₁, h₁₂, h₂₂, h₂₁,h_(2 NTX), h_(1 NTX), h_(NRX 1), h_(NRX 2), h_(NRX NTX), where h_(mn)may represent a channel coefficient from transmit antenna n to receiverantenna m. There may be N_(TX) transmitter antennas and N_(RX) receiverantennas. There is also shown transmit symbols x₁, x₂ and x_(NTX), andreceive symbols y₁, y₂ and y_(NRX).

The MIMO transmitter 102 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/orcode that may be enabled to generate transmit symbols x_(i) iε{1, 2, . .. N_(TX)} that may be transmitted by the transmit antennas, of which theantennas 106, 108 and 110 may be depicted in FIG. 1B. The MIMO receiver104 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may beenabled to process the receive symbols y_(i) iε{1, 2, . . . N_(RX)} thatmay be received by the receive antennas, of which the antennas 112, 114and 116 may be shown in FIG. 1B. An input-output relationship betweenthe transmitted and the received signal in a MIMO system may be writtenas:

y=Hx+n

where y=[y₁, y₂, . . . y_(NRX)]T may be a column vector with N_(RX)elements, .^(T) may denote a vector transpose, H=[h_(ij)]:iε{1, 2, . . .N_(RX)}; jε{1, 2, . . . N_(TX)} may be a channel matrix of dimensionsN_(RX) by N_(TX), x=[x₁, x₂, . . . x_(NTX)]^(T) is a column vector withN_(TX) elements and n is a column vector of noise samples with N_(RX)elements. The channel matrix H may be written, for example, as H=UΣV^(H)using the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), where .^(H) denotes theHermitian transpose, U is a N_(RX) by N_(TX) unitary matrix, Σ is aN_(TX) by N_(TX) diagonal matrix and V is N_(TX) by N_(TX) unitarymatrix. Other matrix decompositions that may diagonalize or transformthe matrix H may be used instead of the SVD. If the receiver algorithmimplemented in MIMO receiver 104 is, for example, an Ordered SuccessiveInterference Cancellation (OSIC), other matrix decompositions thatconvert the matrix H to lower/upper triangular may be appropriate. Onesuch decomposition may comprise Geometric Mean Decomposition (GMD),where H=QRP^(H), where R may be upper triangular with the geometric meanof the singular values of H on the diagonal elements, and Q and P may beunitary.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary MIMO transceiverchain model, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown a MIMO system 200 comprising a MIMOtransmitter 202, a MIMO baseband equivalent channel 203, a MIMO receiver204, and an adder 208. The MIMO transmitter 202 may comprise atransmitter (TX) baseband processing block 210 and a transmit pre-codingblock 214. The MIMO baseband equivalent channel 203 may comprise awireless channel 206, a TX radio frequency (RF) processing block 212 anda receiver (RX) RF processing block 218. The MIMO receiver 204 maycomprise a pre-coding decoding block 216 and a RX baseband processingblock 220. There is also shown symbol vector s, pre-coded vector x,noise vector n, received vector y and channel-decoded vector y′.

The MIMO transmitter 202 may comprise a baseband processing block 210,which may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may beenabled to generate a MIMO baseband transmit signal. The MIMO basebandtransmit signal may be communicated to a transmit pre-coding block 214.A baseband signal may be suitably coded for transmission over a wirelesschannel 206 in the transmit pre-coding block 214 that may comprisesuitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may enable it to performthese functions. The TX RF processing block 212 may comprise suitablelogic, circuitry and/or code that may enable a signal communicated tothe TX RF processing block 212 to be modulated to radio frequency (RF)for transmission over the wireless channel 206. The RX RF processingblock 218 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may beenabled to perform radio frequency front-end functionality to receivethe signal transmitted over the wireless channel 206. The RX RFprocessing block 218 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or codethat may enable the demodulation of its input signals to baseband. Theadder 208 may depict the addition of noise to the received signal at theMIMO receiver 204. The MIMO receiver 204 may comprise the pre-codingdecoding block 216 that may linearly decode a received signal andcommunicate it to the RX baseband processing block 220. The RX basebandprocessing block 220 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or logicthat may enable to apply further signal processing to baseband signal.

The MIMO transmitter 202 may comprise a baseband processing block 210,which may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may beenabled to generate a MIMO baseband transmit signal. The MIMO basebandtransmit signal may be communicated to a transmit pre-coding block 214and may be the symbol vector s. The symbol vector s may be of dimensionN_(TX) by 1.

The transmit pre-coding block 214 may be enabled to apply a lineartransformation to the symbol vector s, so that x=Ws, where W may be ofdimension N_(TX) by length of s, and x=[x₁, x₂, . . . x_(NTX)]^(T). Eachelement of the pre-coded vector x may be transmitted on a differentantenna among N_(TX) available antennas.

The transmitted pre-coded vector x may traverse the MIMO basebandequivalent channel 203. From the N_(RX) receiver antennas, the receivedsignal y may be the signal x transformed by the MIMO baseband equivalentchannel 203 represented by a matrix H, plus a noise component given bythe noise vector n. As depicted by the adder 208, the received vector ymay be given by y=Hx+n=HWs+n. The received vector y may be communicatedto the pre-coding decoding block 216, where a linear decoding operationB may be applied to the received vector y to obtain the decoded vectory′=B^(H)y=B^(H)HWs+B^(H)n, where B may be a complex matrix ofappropriate dimensions. The decoded vector y′ may then be communicatedto the RX baseband processing block 220 where further signal processingmay be applied to the output of the pre-coding decoding block 216.

If the transfer function H of the MIMO baseband equivalent channel 203that may be applied to the transmitted pre-coded vector x is known bothat the MIMO transmitter 202 and the MIMO receiver 204, the channel maybe diagonalized by, for example, setting W=V and B=U, where H=UΣV^(H)may be the singular value decomposition. In these instances, the channeldecoded vector y′ may be given by the following relationship:

y′=U ^(H) UΣV ^(H) Vs+U ^(H) n=Σs+U ^(H) n

Since Σ may be a diagonal matrix, there may be no interference betweenthe elements of symbol vector s in y′ and hence the wirelesscommunications system may appear like a system with up to N_(TX)parallel single antenna wireless communication systems, for each elementof s, up to the rank of channel matrix H which may be less or equal toN_(TX). The operation of applying the matrix W to the vector s may bereferred to as pre-coding. The operation of making the wireless systemappear like a system of parallel non-interfering data streams due to theuse of multiple antennas, may lead to the use of the term spatial datastreams since each data stream may originate on different transmitantennas. The number of spatial data streams 1≦N_(S)=r≦min{N_(TX),N_(RX)} that may be separated or decoupled may be limited by the rank rof the channel matrix H, as described above. Each spatial streamoriginating at a transmit antenna may be modulated and coded separately.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary MIMO with finite rate channelstate information feedback, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention. Referring to FIG. 3, there is shown a MIMO system 300,comprising a partial MIMO transmitter 302, a partial MIMO receiver 304,a Wireless channel 306, an adder 308, and a feedback channel 320. Thepartial MIMO transmitter 302 may comprise a transmit pre-coding block314. The partial MIMO receiver 304 may comprise a pre-coding decodingblock 316, a channel estimation block 322, a channel quantization block310, a channel decomposition block 312, and a codebook processing block318. There is also shown a symbol vector s, a pre-coded vector x, anoise vector n, a received vector y, and a decoded vector y′.

The transmit pre-coding block 314, the wireless channel 306, the adder308 and the pre-coding decoding block 316 may be substantially similarto the transmit pre-coding block 214, the MIMO baseband equivalentchannel 203, the adder 208 and the pre-coding decoding block 216,illustrated in FIG. 2. The channel estimation block 322 may comprisesuitable logic, circuitry and/or logic to estimate the transfer functionof the wireless channel 206. The channel estimate may be communicated tothe channel decomposition block 312, which may comprise suitable logic,circuitry and/or code, which may be enabled to decompose the channel. Inthis regard, the decomposed channel may be communicated to the channelquantization block 310. The channel quantization block 310 may comprisesuitable logic, circuitry and/or code, which may be enabled to partlyquantize the channel onto a codebook. The codebook processing block 318may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or logic, which may beenabled to generate a codebook. The feedback channel 320 may represent achannel that may be enabled to carry channel state information from thepartial MIMO receiver 304 to the partial MIMO transmitter 302.

In many wireless systems, the channel state information, that is,knowledge of the channel transfer matrix H, may not be available at thetransmitter and the receiver. However, in order to utilize a pre-codingsystem as illustrated in FIG. 2, it may be desirable to have at leastpartial channel knowledge available at the transmitter. In the exemplaryembodiment of the invention disclosed in FIG. 2, the MIMO transmitter302 may require the unitary matrix V for pre-coding in the transmitpre-coding block 214 of MIMO transmitter 202.

In frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, the frequency band forcommunications from the base station to the mobile terminal, downlinkcommunications, may be different from the frequency band in the reversedirection, uplink communications. Because of a difference in frequencybands, a channel measurement in the uplink may not generally be usefulfor the downlink and vice versa. In these instances, the measurementsmay only be made at the receiver and channel state information (CSI) maybe communicated back to the transmitter via feedback. For this reason,the CSI may be fed back to the transmit pre-coding block 314 of thepartial MIMO transmitter 302 from the partial MIMO receiver 304 via thefeedback channel 320. The transmit pre-coding block 314, the wirelesschannel 306, and the adder 308 are substantially similar to thecorresponding blocks 214, 203 and 208, illustrated in FIG. 2. At thepartial MIMO receiver 304, the received signal y may be used to estimatethe channel transfer function H by H in the channel estimation block322. The estimate may further be decomposed into, for example, adiagonal or triangular form, depending on a particular receiverimplementation, as explained for FIG. 2. For example, the channeldecomposition block 312 may perform an SVD: Ĥ=Û{circumflex over(Σ)}{circumflex over (V)}^(H). In the case of a plurality of antennas,the dimensions of the matrices U, Σ and V may grow quickly. In theseinstances, it may be desirable to quantize the matrix {circumflex over(V)} into a matrix V_(q) of dimensions N_(TX) by N_(TX), where V_(q) maybe chosen from pre-defined finite set of unitary matrices C={V_(i)}. Theset of unitary matrices C may be referred to as the codebook. By findinga matrix V_(q) from the codebook that may be, in some sense, closest tothe matrix {circumflex over (V)}, it may suffice to transmit the index qto the transmit pre-coding block 314 via the feedback channel 320 fromthe channel quantization block 310, if the partial MIMO transmitter 302may know the codebook C. The codebook C may be varying much slower thanthe channel transfer function H and it may suffice to periodicallyupdate the codebook C in the transmit pre-coding block 314 from thecodebook processing block 318 via the feedback channel 320. The codebookC may be chosen to be static or adaptive. Furthermore, the codebook Cmay also be chosen, adaptively or non-adaptively, from a set ofcodebooks, which may comprise adaptively and/or statically designedcodebooks. In these instances, the partial MIMO receiver 304 may informthe partial MIMO transmitter 302 of the codebook in use at any giveninstant in time. Hence, the channel H may be estimated in the channelestimation block 322 and decomposed in the channel decomposition block312.

In the channel quantization block 310, a matrix, for example {circumflexover (V)} may be quantized into a matrix V_(q) and the index q may befed back to the partial MIMO transmitter 302 via the feedback channel320. The codebook C may also be chosen time invariant. Furthermore, thecodebook C may also be chosen, adaptively or non-adaptively, from a setof codebooks, which may comprise adaptively and/or statically designedcodebooks, as described above. Less frequently than the index q, thecodebook C from the codebook processing block 318 may be transmitted tothe partial MIMO transmitter 302 via the feedback channel 320. Tofeedback the index q, M bits may suffice when the cardinality |C| of thecodebook C may be less or equal to |C|≦2^(M).

The transmit pre-coding block 314 may perform, for example, the lineartransformation x=V_(q)s. The pre-coding decoding block 316 at thereceiver may implement the linear transformation y′=Û^(H)y. In someinstances, the rank r of the channel matrix H may be less than thenumber of transmit antennas r≦N_(TX). In these instances, it may bedesirable to map a reduced number of spatial streams into the vector x,as described for FIG. 2. For example, the vector s may be chosen, sothat x=Ws, where W may be of dimension N_(TX) by the length of s and thelength of s may be the number of spatial streams, generally smaller thanthe rank r. The matrix W may be constructed, for example, from adesirable choice of columns from V_(q). In another embodiment of theinvention, the vector x may be generated from x=V_(q)s, as describedabove, and some suitably chosen elements of the vector s of lengthN_(TX) may be set to zero, so that generally the non-zero elements inthe vector s may be less than the rank r. In these instances, theelements in s that may be set to zero may correspond to non-utilizedspatial streams. The feedback of the index q, and associatedinformation, may be referred to as Pre-Coding Matrix Index (PMI)information.

In some instances, it may be possible that the different spatial streamsmay experience significantly different channel conditions. For example,an attenuation coefficient of one spatial stream may be significantlydifferent from an attenuation coefficient of another spatial stream. Forexample, the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) or another performance measuremay differ between the spatial streams. Accordingly, the modulationand/or coding of each spatial stream may be adapted independently.Adapting the modulation format and the coding rate for each spatialstream (by adapting the transmitted symbols, for example) may be enabledby feeding back channel state information and/or channel-basedinformation from the MIMO receiver 304 to the MIMO transmitter 302 viathe feedback channel 320. Feedback information that may be utilized todetermine suitable modulation and coding protocols for the transmit datamay be referred to as Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) information. Inaccordance with various embodiments of the invention, the CQIinformation may be, for example, a Signal-to-Noise-and-InterferenceRatio (SINR) that may be mapped to a suitable modulation and codingconfiguration. In another embodiment of the invention, the MIMO receiver304 may directly feedback a desirable modulation and codingconfiguration, based on estimated channel quality, for example.

The modulation and coding for each spatial stream may be chosen from amodulation coding set (MCS), which may comprise combinations ofmodulation constellations and coding rates that may be employed by thepartial MIMO transmitter 302. For example, the modulation may be chosenfrom, but is not limited to, QPSK, 16QAM or 64QAM, where QPSK may denotequadrature phase shift keying and K-QAM may denote quadrature amplitudemodulation with K constellation points. A coding rate may be chosen tobe, for example, ⅓, ⅕ or ¾, whereby any rational number smaller than 1may be feasible. A modulation coding set may comprise elements that maybe formed by combining a modulation type with a coding rate. Anexemplary element of a modulation coding set may be ‘QPSK ⅓’, which maydenote a QPSK modulation with a coding rate of ⅓. An MCS may comprise Nelements. In this case, the MCS may be referred to as an N-level MCS. Inorder to select an element from an N-level MCS at the partial MIMOreceiver 304 and feed back the index indicating the appropriate elementin the MCS from the partial MIMO receiver 304 to the partial MIMOtransmitter 302 via the feedback channel 320, B≧log₂(N) bits of feedbackmay be required per spatial stream.

In order to reduce the number of bits required for feedback, adifferential scheme may be implemented. In these instances, B≧log₂(N)bits may be transmitted for the spatial stream 1, for example, totransmit an index to an element of the MCS, as described above. Theparameter s_(k) may denote an MCS feedback value for spatial stream k.For the spatial streams 2 though N_(S), an index offset value s_(k) maybe fed back from the partial MIMO receiver 304 to the partial MIMOtransmitter 302. Such an offset value may, for example, take the valuess_(k)ε{0, ±1, ±2, ±3}:k=2, . . . , N_(S). In this exemplary case, forspatial stream 2 through N_(S), B_(d)=3 bits of feedback may besufficient to feed back an offset value s_(k):k≠1. The required index tothe MCS for spatial stream k may then be obtained from the feedbackvalue for spatial stream 1 and the offset s_(k). The index q(k) maydenote the index of the desired element in the MCS for user k. Hence,applying the above procedure, the partial MIMO transmitter 302 maydetermine the indices q(k) according to the following relationship:

q(j)=s _(j): requiring B≧log 2(N) feedback bits

q(k)=q(j)+s _(k) :∀k≠j, B _(d) feedback bits required for s _(k)  (1)

where j=1 may be as chosen above. The index j may be chosen tocorrespond to an arbitrary spatial stream, such that jε{1, 2, . . . ,N_(S)}. For ease of exposition and clarity, j=1 may be assumed in thefollowing description. When B_(d)<B, the number of bits that may be fedback from the partial MIMO receiver 304 to the partial MIMO transmitter302 may be reduced. In some instances, due to a reduction in the numberof feedback bits, the range of indices q(k) that may be addressed byq(k):k≠j may be limited to a subset of the MCS, since the addressableelements in the MCS and their associated indices q(k) may depend on thevalue s_(j)=s₁.

A further reduction in the number of feedback bits may be achieved byusing a differential scheme also for spatial stream j=1. This may bedone in instances where the channel conditions vary slowly enough toenable differential tracking of the new index based on an offset valueadded to the last instance of the index value. In this case, the indexat time n for user k may be defined by the following relationship:

q ₀(j)=s _(j):requiring B≧log 2(N) feedback bits

q _(n)(j)=q _(n-1)(j)+s _(j) :B _(d) feedback bits required

q _(n)(k)=q _(n)(j)+s _(k) :∀k≠j,B _(d) feedback bits required  (2)

In this case, hence, the initial index for the spatial stream j=1 may befed back using B bits, which may address any element in the MCS. Forsubsequent indices the channel may change slowly enough so that theprevious index q_(n-1)(j) may be used to determine the new indexq_(n)(j). It may be desirable to reinitialize q_(n)(j) occasionally.

It may be desirable to choose an appropriate number of levels for theMCS. In principle, N, the number of elements or levels of an N-levelMCS, may be chosen to be any positive integer. However, since the indexto an element of an N-level MCS may be fed back from the partial MIMOreceiver 304 to the partial MIMO transmitter 302, it may be efficient tochoose N as a power of 2. Furthermore, it may be undesirable to use bothmany and few levels. With few levels, the MCS may be relatively coarse,which may lead to a selection of a level that may be inefficient for thegiven channel conditions. On the other hand, an MCS with a large numberof levels may provide a highly efficient match between the channelconditions and the selected level in the MCS. It may take comparativelylong until the system settles, that is, the transient phase, alsoreferred to as settling time, may be long. In addition, with a largenumber of levels, the differential protocol for the spatial streams 2through N_(S) introduced above, may potentially result in a smalldynamic range, which may be undesirable.

FIG. 4 is a time-frequency diagram illustrating a time-frequencywireless channel, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown a time-frequency diagram 400,comprising a detail blow-up 402. The frequency axis may be divided intoseveral exemplary sub-divisions, for example A through E as illustratedin FIG. 4. A sub-band may be given by a bandwidth f_(CQI). A sub-bandmay comprise, for example, one or more resource blocks of bandwidthf_(RB). A resource block may comprise a bandwidth comprising one or morecarrier spacings of bandwidth f_(d), as illustrated in the detailblow-up 402. In an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)system, for example, the carrier spacing may be given by the bandwidthof a tone and/or between tones. A CQI/PMI reporting unit may comprise abandwidth f_(CQI).

The time axis may be sub-divided, similar to the frequency axis, intoexemplary sub-divisions 1 through 4, as illustrated in FIG. 4. There isshown a t_(CQI) and a t_(s) subdivision. t_(CQI) may be a reportinginterval between CQI/PMI feedback messages. t_(s) may be a morefundamental time unit, for example, a channel sampling time. A CQI/PMIreporting unit may be defined as representing a time-frequency slide ofthe time-frequency wireless channel, for example of dimension t_(CQI) byf_(CQI). Referring to FIG. 4, there is also shown a plurality of best-MCQI/PMI time-frequency reporting units, marked by a hatched pattern.

In the description of the wireless channel for FIG. 2, the wirelesschannel for a MIMO system may be described by a channel matrix H.However, the matrix H may represent the channel between a transmit and areceive antennas by a scalar, as may be see from the channel modeldescribing the matrix H: H=[hij]:iε{1, 2 . . . N_(RX)}, jε{1, 2, . . .N_(TX)}. The wireless channel, in general, may be a function of time andfrequency and may be approximately constant only over a small area ofthe time-frequency plane. This area may be determined by the channelconditions, for example the channel coherence bandwidth and the channelcoherence time. These variables may be determined by a variety ofenvironmental factors, for example, Doppler spread due to movements.Hence, the channel matrix may be function of both time and frequency andmay be written more accurately as H(f,t)=[hij(f,t)]:iε{1, 2, . . .N_(RX)}, jε{1, 2, . . . N_(TX)}. For notational simplicity, the time andfrequency dependency is not shown, however. With regard to FIG. 4, insome instances a matrix H may be measured for each time-frequency sliceof area t_(s) by f_(d), as illustrated in the detail blow-up 402. In anOFDM system, such a channel matrix H may correspond to a channelestimate of a single OFDM sub-carrier, also referred to as a tone, in asampling interval of length t_(s). Clearly, since a channel measurementH may be made for each unit of area t_(s) by f_(d) of the wirelesstime-frequency channel, a large amount of channel data may be available.However, since feedback capacity from the MIMO receiver 304 to the MIMOtransmitter 302 via the feedback channel 320 may be limited, it may benecessary to reduce the resolution of the channel feedback messages andreport channel measurements that may be a function of a number ofchannel measurements. Similarly, in order to reduce the rate at whichfeedback messages may be sent back to the MIMO transmitter 302, thefeedback messages may be sent only every multiple of, for example, thesampling time t_(s). The resolution may be reduced, for example, byaveraging the measured channel matrices H in time and frequency over thereporting area in the time-frequency plane, as illustrated for CQI/PMIreporting units in FIG. 4.

In one exemplary embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 4, aCQI/PMI reporting block may comprise a bandwidth of f_(CQI), which maycomprise, for example, four Resource blocks of bandwidth f_(RB). Asshown in the detail blow-up 402, the Resource block may comprise, forexample 8 carrier spacing blocks of bandwidth f_(d) each. In the timedimension, the CQI/PMI reporting unit may comprise a time interval oft_(CQI), which may, for example, comprise 3 sampling periods t_(s).Hence, as illustrated in FIG. 4, the entire available bandwidth may bedivided into 5 sub-bands, for example A trough E, and a CQI/PMIreporting unit may be defined for each sub-band and period t_(CQI), forexample as illustrated in grid positions A1, A2, . . . B1, B2, . . .etc. in FIG. 4. The CQI/PMI reporting unit may be associated with one ormore values that may be a function of the channel measurements obtainedfor the time-frequency slice covered by the CQI/PMI reporting unit. Forexample, an average SINR over the time and frequency slice of theCQI/PMI reporting unit may be computed to determine an appropriateaverage coding and modulation level to be fed back, and may beassociated with a CQI value. Similarly, a suitable measure for feedbackmay be determined for the PMI feedback message. For example, an averagematrix H′ may be computed from the measured matrices H covered by thetime-frequency slide of the PMI reporting unit. In another embodiment ofthe invention, the measured matrix H for a centrally placedtime-frequency slice may be fed back, averaged over time, for example.Hence, to reduce feedback requirements, a plurality of channelmeasurements H may be processed into two sets of values, a set regardingCQI feedback and a set regarding PMI feedback.

In order to reduce feedback requirements, only a selection of CQI/PMIreporting units may feed back from the MIMO receiver 304 to the MIMOtransmitter 302. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, theCQI/PMI reporting units with the M best CQI values (referred to asbest-M CQI) may feed back, where M may be a variable and ‘best’ may bedefined in terms of some performance measure. For example in FIG. 4, inthe time interval 1, CQI/PMI reporting blocks B and D may be the best-2CQI reporting units, for example, the CQI/PMI reporting units associatedwith the highest SINR. In this example, the CQI/PMI reporting blocks A1,B1, C1, D1 and E1 may compute CQI values according to some function thatmay be based on channel measurements. With M=2, 2 desirable CQI/PMIreporting units according to some measure, exemplary reporting units B1and D1 marked in hatched, may be selected and fed back. The otherCQI/PMI reporting units, in the instance A1, C1, and E1, may not feedback information in time interval 1. In addition, the PMI valueassociated with the best-M CQI reporting units, for example B1 and D1may also be transmitted.

In addition to the feedback associated with the M selected CQI/PMIreporting units, for example B1 and D1, a CQI aggregate value may alsobe fed back. In particular, since the CQI/PMI values of, for example,the reporting units A1, C1 and E1 may not be fed back, a CQI aggregatevalue may be computed and fed back. The CQI aggregate value may be, forexample, an average based on the CQI values computed for the CQI/PMIreporting units A1, B1, C1 D1 and E1. The CQI aggregate value may,however, not be limited to an average but may be derived from anarbitrary function that may use any data. In the present example, for 5CQI/PMI reporting units that may cover the entire bandwidth, 2 CQIvalues and associated PMI values may be fed back. In addition, a CQIaggregate value may also be fed back, as described above. Similarly, asillustrated in FIG. 4, at time interval 2, 3, and 4, CQI/PMI reportingunits A2 and E2, C3 and D3, and C4 and E4 may be selected for feedbackby the best-M approach, respectively.

The CQI/PMI reporting unit may be arbitrarily sized, in accordance withan embodiment of the invention. In addition, the CQI/PMI reporting unitdimensions may be adjusted dynamically, for example as a function of theavailable feedback capacity and/or the channel conditions. Similarly,the dimensions of the sub-divisions in time and/or frequency may bechosen arbitrarily. For example, in one embodiment of the invention, aresource block may comprise 12 OFDM tones. The generation of the CQI/PMImessages may not be limited to averages and may be any arbitraryfunction that may be at least a function of channel conditions and/orchannel measurements.

In another embodiment of the invention, the CQI/PMI reporting units maybe variably sized in frequency. In other words, a CQI/PMI reporting unitmay be of different size, depending on the absolute frequency. Forexample, an entire channel may be 5 MHz wide. In accordance with anembodiment of the invention, a first CQI/PMI reporting unit may coverthe bandwidth from 0-1 MHz. A second CQI/PMI reporting unit may coverthe bandwidth from 1-4.5 MHz. A third CQI/PMI reporting unit may coverthe bandwidth from 4.5-5 MHz. In some instances, neighboring PMI/CQIreporting units may also overlap in frequency.

At the MIMO transmitter, for example MIMO transmitter 302, the receivedCQI and PMI feedback values may be used to select desirable modulationand coding levels and perform pre-coding, respectively. Generally, auser may be scheduled for a certain transmission bandwidth on thedownlink. For example, if a downlink transmission from MIMO transmitter302 to downlink receiver 304 may be scheduled by the base station tooccur in frequency band B at time 1, the MIMO transmitter 302 may beable to utilize the CQI and PMI feedback associated with time-frequencyblock B1 for transmit purposes, since B1 and D1 may have been selectedfor feedback in the best-M protocol, as illustrated by the hatchedpattern in FIG. 4. However, in some instances, the scheduledtime-frequency transmission slot may not coincide with a CQI/PMIreporting unit that may have been selected for feeding back its CQI andPMI values, due to the best-M selection protocol. For example, in timeinterval 1, a transmission may be scheduled in time-frequency slot A1.In this instance, the MIMO transmitter 302 may use the CQI aggregatevalue to determine a desirable modulation and coding level since a CQIlevel for the CQI/PMI reporting unit at time-frequency instance C1 maynot have been fed back.

With regard to the PMI feedback information that may be required at theMIMO transmitter 302 for pre-coding of time-frequency transmission inA1, PMI feedback information from the nearest best-M CQI/PMI reportingunit may be used, wherein nearest may be defined in terms of somedistance measure. For example, the distance measure may be distance infrequency. In this instance, the nearest best-M CQI/PMI reporting unitto A1 may be B1 and hence the PMI information fed back from B1 may beused. In another embodiment of the invention, the PMI information may begenerated by interpolation. For example, if a transmission may bescheduled to occur in time-frequency slot C2, the nearest best-M CQI/PMIreporting units that may have fed back PMI information may be A2 and E2,both of which may be ‘far’, as measured by a frequency distance measure.In this case, it may be desirable to use an interpolated pre-codingmatrix based on the pre-coding matrices associated with the PMI feedbackinformation from both best-M CQI/PMI reporting units A2 and E2. In themore general case, a pre-coding matrix for a non-best-M time-frequencyslot may be determined by interpolating between the pre-coding matricesassociated with the nearest best-M CQI/PMI reporting units, according tosome distance measure. The distance measure that may be employed may befrequency and/or time or any arbitrary distance measure. Similarly, theinterpolation algorithm that may be used to interpolate betweenpre-coding matrices may be arbitrary.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary best-M CQI/PMI feedbackprocess with aggregate CQI, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention. In step 504, information associated with the CQI and PMIfeedback may be generated for CQI/PMI reporting units. This may, forexample, comprise SINR values, which may be the relevant CQIinformation, associated with the CQI/PMI reporting units. Based on someperformance measure applied to the CQI information associated to theCQI/PMI reporting unit, M desirable CQI/PMI reporting units may bechosen for feedback in step 506. In step 508, an aggregate CQI may becomputed from one or more CQI values associated with CQI/PMI reportingunits. In step 510, the aggregate CQI, and the CQI and PMI values of thebest-M CQI/PMI reporting units may be fed back, for example from theMIMO receiver 304 to the MIMO transmitter 302. In step 512, the loop mayreturn to the start or terminate.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary utilization of thePMI/CQI feedback at a MIMO transmitter as a function of scheduling, inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention. At the MIMO transmitter304, for example a base station, the transmissions may generally bescheduled. Each transmission may be assigned a time-frequency slot, forexample B2, as illustrated in FIG. 4. In step 604, the base station mayschedule the transmissions for one or more transmissions. In step 606,if a scheduled transmission for a particular transmission, for example aparticular user, falls into a time-frequency slot that may be associatedwith a best-M CQI/PMI feedback, the CQI and PMI feedback informationassociated with the scheduled/best-M time-frequency slot may be used forprecoding and to determine desirable modulation and coding for thetransmission, as shown in steps 608 and 610. If a scheduled transmissionfor a particular transmission, for example a particular user, falls intoa time-frequency slot that may not be associated with a best-M CQI/PMIfeedback, the aggregate CQI feedback value may be used to determinedesirable modulation and coding for the transmission, as shown in step614.

In step 612, in addition, pre-coding may be achieved by using, forexample, the pre-coding matrix associated with the PMI feedback of thenearest best-M CQI/PMI reporting units, as described for FIG. 4. Thenearest best-M CQI/PMI reporting unit to the scheduled time-frequencyslot may be determined based on an arbitrary distance function, whichmay be a distance function of frequency and/or time, for example. Inaccordance with various embodiments of the invention, it may bedesirable to determine a pre-coding matrix for a scheduledtime-frequency transmission slot that may not coincide with a best-MCQI/PMI feedback, to determine a suitable pre-coding matrix based oninterpolating pre-coding matrices associated with best-M CQI/PMIfeedback information.

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a method and systemfor best-M CQI feedback together with PMI feedback may comprisegenerating a plurality of feedback messages, as illustrated in FIG. 5,which may be communicated from a mobile station 304 to a base station302, wherein at least one of the generated plurality of feedbackmessages may be associated with each corresponding selected one of aplurality of Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) reporting units. The atleast one of the generated feedback messages may comprise CQIinformation and Pre-coding Matrix Index (PMI) information, as describedfor FIG. 4, which may both be associated with the selected one of theplurality of CQI reporting units. At least one other of the generatedplurality of feedback messages may comprise an aggregate CQIinformation, the aggregate information based on one or more of theplurality of CQI reporting units illustrated in FIG. 5.

The aggregate CQI information may be generated, for example, based on anarithmetic mean of CQI information associated with the plurality of CQIreporting units, or on an arbitrary function of channel stateinformation as described for FIG. 5. It may be determined whether ascheduled transmission corresponds to a time-frequency interval ofselected one or more CQI reporting units, and a modulation type and/or acoding type, and a pre-coding matrix, may be selected for the scheduledtransmission based on the determining and on CQI information and/or PMIinformation associated with a plurality of CQI reporting units, asdescribed for FIG. 6. The modulation type, and/or coding type, and thepre-coding matrix may be selected for the scheduled transmission basedon CQI information and/or PMI information associated with the selectedCQI reporting unit when the scheduled transmission corresponds to thetime-frequency interval of the selected one or more CQI reporting unit.When the scheduled transmission does not correspond to thetime-frequency interval of the selected one or more CQI reporting unit,the modulation type and the coding type may be selected based on anaggregate CQI information, as described for FIG. 6. In these instances,the pre-coding matrices may be selected based on one or more of theplurality of CQI reporting units. The pre-coding matrix may be generatedbased on interpolation between a plurality of pre-coding matricesassociated with a plurality of the selected one or more CQI reportingunits, as described for FIG. 4 and FIG. 6. The plurality of the selectedone or more CQI reporting units may be selected by choosing a pluralityof nearest of the selected one or more CQI reporting units to thescheduled transmission, according to a distance metric, when thescheduled transmission does not correspond to the time-frequencyinterval, as illustrated in FIG. 6. The distance metric may be adifference in frequency and/or time. The pre-coding matrix may beselected from pre-coding matrices associated with the selected one ormore CQI reporting units, when the scheduled transmission does notcorrespond to the time-frequency interval. In these instances, thepre-coding matrix may be selected by selecting a pre-coding matrix thatmay be associated with nearest of selected one or more CQI reportingunit to the scheduled transmission, according to a distance metric. Thedistance metric may be a difference in frequency and/or time.

Another embodiment of the invention may provide a machine-readablestorage, having stored thereon, a computer program having at least onecode section executable by a machine, thereby causing the machine toperform the steps as described above for a method and system foradaptive allocation of feedback resources for CQI and transmitpre-coding.

Accordingly, the present invention may be realized in hardware,software, or a combination of hardware and software. The presentinvention may be realized in a centralized fashion in at least onecomputer system, or in a distributed fashion where different elementsare spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind ofcomputer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methodsdescribed herein is suited. A typical combination of hardware andsoftware may be a general-purpose computer system with a computerprogram that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computersystem such that it carries out the methods described herein.

The present invention may also be embedded in a computer programproduct, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation ofthe methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer systemis able to carry out these methods. Computer program in the presentcontext means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of aset of instructions intended to cause a system having an informationprocessing capability to perform a particular function either directlyor after either or both of the following: a) conversion to anotherlanguage, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different materialform.

While the present invention has been described with reference to certainembodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention. In addition, manymodifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material tothe teachings of the present invention without departing from its scope.Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited tothe particular embodiment disclosed, but that the present invention willinclude all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

1. A method for processing communication signals, the method comprising:generating a plurality of feedback messages, which is communicated froma mobile station to a base station, wherein: at least one of saidgenerated plurality of feedback messages is associated with eachcorresponding selected one of a plurality of Channel Quality Indicator(CQI) reporting units, said at least one of said generated feedbackmessages comprising CQI information and Pre-coding Matrix Index (PMI)information, which are both associated with said selected one of saidplurality of CQI reporting units; and at least one other of saidgenerated plurality of feedback message comprising an aggregate CQIinformation, said aggregate CQI information based on one or more of saidplurality of CQI reporting units.
 2. The method according to claim 1,comprising generating said aggregate CQI information based on anarithmetic mean of CQI information associated with said plurality of CQIreporting units.
 3. The method according to claim 1, comprisinggenerating said aggregate CQI information based on an arbitrary functionof channel state information.
 4. A method for processing communicationsignals, the method comprising: determining whether a scheduledtransmission corresponds to a time-frequency interval of selected one ormore Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) reporting units; and selecting amodulation type and/or a coding type, and a pre-coding matrix, for saidscheduled transmission based on said determining and on CQI informationand/or Pre-coding Matrix Index (PMI) information associated with aplurality of CQI reporting units.
 5. The method according to claim 4,comprising selecting said modulation type, and/or said coding type, andsaid pre-coding matrix, for said scheduled transmission based on CQIinformation and/or PMI information associated with said selected CQIreporting unit when said scheduled transmission corresponds to saidtime-frequency interval of said selected one or more CQI reporting unit.6. The method according to claim 4, comprising selecting said modulationtype and said coding type based on an aggregate CQI information whensaid scheduled transmission does not correspond to said time-frequencyinterval of said selected one or more CQI reporting unit.
 7. The methodaccording to claim 4, comprising selecting said pre-coding matrix basedon one or more of said plurality of CQI reporting units when saidscheduled transmission does not correspond to said time-frequencyinterval of said selected one or more CQI reporting units.
 8. The methodaccording to claim 7, comprising generating said selected pre-codingmatrix, based on interpolation between a plurality of pre-codingmatrices associated with a corresponding plurality of said selected oneor more CQI reporting units, when said scheduled transmission does notcorrespond to said time-frequency interval.
 9. The method according toclaim 8, comprising selecting said plurality of said selected one ormore CQI reporting units by choosing a plurality of nearest of saidselected one or more CQI reporting units to said scheduled transmission,according to a distance metric, when said scheduled transmission doesnot correspond to said time-frequency interval.
 10. The method accordingto claim 9, wherein said distance metric is a difference in frequencyand/or time.
 11. The method according to claim 7, comprising selectingsaid pre-coding matrix from pre-coding matrices associated with saidselected one or more CQI reporting units, when said scheduledtransmission does not correspond to said time-frequency interval. 12.The method according to claim 11, comprising selecting said pre-codingmatrix by selecting a pre-coding matrix that is associated with nearestof selected one or more CQI reporting unit to said scheduledtransmission, according to a distance metric.
 13. The method accordingto claim 12, wherein said distance metric is a difference in frequencyand/or time.
 14. A system for processing communication signals, thesystem comprising: one or more circuits, said one or more circuitsenable: generation of a plurality of feedback messages, which iscommunicated from a mobile station to a base station, wherein: at leastone of said generated plurality of feedback messages is associated witheach corresponding selected one of a plurality of Channel QualityIndicator (CQI) reporting units, said at least one of said generatedfeedback messages comprising CQI information and Pre-coding Matrix Index(PMI) information, which are both associated with said selected one ofsaid plurality of CQI reporting units; and at least one other of saidgenerated plurality of feedback message comprising an aggregate CQIinformation, said aggregate CQI information based on one or more of saidplurality of CQI reporting units.
 15. The system according to claim 14,wherein said one or more circuits generate said aggregate CQIinformation based on an arithmetic mean of CQI information associatedwith said plurality of CQI reporting units.
 16. The system according toclaim 14, wherein said one or more circuits generate said aggregate CQIinformation based on an arbitrary function of channel state information.17. A system for processing communication signals, the systemcomprising: one or more circuits, said one or more circuits enable:determination of whether a scheduled transmission corresponds to atime-frequency interval of selected one or more Channel QualityIndicator (CQI) reporting units; and selection of a modulation typeand/or a coding type, and of a pre-coding matrix, for said scheduledtransmission based on said determining and on CQI information and/orPre-coding Matrix Index (PMI) information associated with a plurality ofCQI reporting units.
 18. The system according to claim 17, wherein saidone or more circuits select said modulation type, and/or said codingtype, and said pre-coding matrix, for said scheduled transmission basedon CQI information and/or PMI information associated with said selectedCQI reporting unit when said scheduled transmission corresponds to saidtime-frequency interval of said selected one or more CQI reporting unit.19. The system according to claim 17, wherein said one or more circuitsselect said modulation type and said coding type based on an aggregateCQI information when said scheduled transmission does not correspond tosaid time-frequency interval of said selected one or more CQI reportingunit.
 20. The system according to claim 14, wherein said one or morecircuits select said pre-coding matrix based on one or more of saidplurality of CQI reporting units when said scheduled transmission doesnot correspond to said time-frequency interval of said selected one ormore CQI reporting units.
 21. The system according to claim 20, whereinsaid one or more circuits generate said selected pre-coding matrix,based on interpolation between a plurality of pre-coding matricesassociated with a corresponding plurality of said selected one or moreCQI reporting units, when said scheduled transmission does notcorrespond to said time-frequency interval.
 22. The system according toclaim 21, wherein said one or more circuits select said plurality ofsaid selected one or more CQI reporting units by choosing a plurality ofnearest of said selected one or more CQI reporting units to saidscheduled transmission, according to a distance metric, when saidscheduled transmission does not correspond to said time-frequencyinterval.
 23. The system according to claim 22, wherein said distancemetric is a difference in frequency and/or time.
 24. The systemaccording to claim 20, wherein said one or more circuits select saidpre-coding matrix from pre-coding matrices associated with said selectedone or more CQI reporting units, when said scheduled transmission doesnot correspond to said time-frequency interval.
 25. The system accordingto claim 24, wherein said one or more circuits select said pre-codingmatrix by selecting a pre-coding matrix that is associated with nearestof selected one or more CQI reporting unit to said scheduledtransmission, according to a distance metric.
 26. The system accordingto claim 25, wherein said distance metric is a difference in frequencyand/or time.